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It’s Not Just About the Exercise: Understanding the Pillars of Recovery
March 24, 2023
Progressing on your fitness journey is, understandably, a long road, especially for deconditioned and unfit individuals.
We spend a lot of time looking at the benefits of hitting the gym and maximizing our muscles, but the biggest oversight lots of people make is on what happens outside the gym.
So many people either overtrain and do not get the results they need because they give up early or find themselves not dialling in their nutrition properly, so they don’t benefit as quickly as other people would.
It’s important to remember that exercise is the stimulus for losing weight, building muscle, etc, but nutrition and recovery are what help you make gains.
Let’s show you the fundamentals.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they don’t eat enough.
Anyone looking to build muscle and/or strength needs to consume at least 1g per pound of their body weight in protein, but it’s also about making sure that you have all your macronutrients dialled in.
This is where nutrition specialists can help, and when they’re here to help you get those ratios right, you will see the difference because you’re not just eating more for the sake of it and putting on a little bit more fat while you build muscle, but you are naturally bulking and cutting as you progress.
Muscle is a great way to keep you lean because it is more metabolically active, but if you overeat, you won’t physically see the results of your hard work.
It is critical to stay hydrated.
Even a small dip in hydration can result in you losing a significant amount of energy.
Making sure that you stay hydrated is critical, but how much should you be drinking? This is where one of the more recent tools known as the Galpin equation comes in handy, which is making sure you consume, in ounces, your body weight in pounds ÷ 30 every 15 minutes.
It’s quite easy to stay hydrated when you consume so little, but it’s about making sure that you remember to consume enough, sip little and often, don’t gulp!
You need to make sure that you are consuming enough calories, if you don’t and you’ve just started on a muscle-building routine you are going to get run down and fatigued pretty quickly. There are so many different signs of overtraining that you can check out here. It’s about making sure that you know which ones you are more likely to experience.
Once you’ve dialled your hydration in, you need to make sure that you are sleeping properly.
Sleep is an anabolic practice; therefore, this is what helps you build muscle more than anything else. But you also need to make sure that you are reining in your stress. If you don’t get enough sleep because of any form of stress, it may take longer to experience those gains.
When it comes to nutrition and the numerous components of building muscle or getting stronger, ensuring you dial all of these things in will make a significant difference. Remember; it’s not just about the exercise!
More Reading
Editing by AskAwayHealth Team
Disclaimer
All AskAwayHealth articles are written by practising Medical Practitioners on various healthcare conditions to promote quality healthcare.
The advice in our material is not meant to replace a qualified healthcare practitioner’s management of your specific condition.
Don’t hesitate to contact a health practitioner to discuss your condition or reach us directly here.
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